From Cold air intake to Deck plate mod

haha oh dang! iv seen some cone air filters you could add to it but id feel like itd restrict some air flow. thanks!

 

These tacoma cold air intakes just look like regular intakes...I used to have a 97 civic with a Aem cold air intake and it routed out of the engine bay and in front of the front wheel well. The tacoma cai looks like a non cold air intake.

 

huh???.......They do route out of the engine bay and get air from the front fender wheel well.

 

and this is exactly why I personally chose to do an "elbow mod" over that deckplate thing. With the elbow mod you get all fresh air from outside the engine bay sans that restrictive reverse snorkel, whereas the deckplate mod you may get a mix of fresh air plus hot engine heat depending upon propagation in there. I say elbow mod FTMFW.

 

That's not a "cold air intake". I'm talking about the non modified air boxes. The ones people are paying $200plus for.

That civic also has/had that extra part connecting to the stock airbox. You would remove all of that and the filter would take up that spot. The airflow would be much better than that plastic elbowing. Dynos numbers would see 5-6hp gain which was a lot for those motors.

 

Pretty much every factory intake/filter setup in the last couple decades (or longer) is a cold air intake. The stock taco pulls air from inside the fender, no mods required. And the taco setup flows more air than the engine can actually use, more so with removing any restrictor. I'm a big fan of throwing money at stupid parts but you need to have a realistic expectation of returns. 5hp added to a lawnmower is a big difference. 5hp peak for 1/10th of a second on a 150+hp car truck, totally negligible. Have fun, mod as you want, but the engine is what it is.

 

You take the lid off and the engine sounds louder. You get bored and put it back on. Nothing gained, nothing lost.

You can get deckplates on ebay for about $2 shipped. I've bought 2 in the last month. For my kayaks.

 

I know the deck plate mod is 100x cheaper and probably provides the same results, but I would definitely fail my SMOG check with a modified air box like that. Something about "failing the visual" and since I modified the stock emissions system. California is super strict about EVERYTHING. With the CAI you're really paying for the fact that it's CA CARB certified. Plus it looks awesome.

 

I never noticed an increase with the deck plate mod. I have a snorkel now, that draws cool air from higher up.

 

I've had the deckplate mod for over 8 years now. Hasn't caused any problem with the four Calif smog inspections it's undertaken - every 2 years. OF course you put the deckplate back in (closing up the hole in the airbox) for the inspection.

 

Once again, the elbow mod wins because you get the fresh air outside the engine bay PLUS it doesn't show-IE it's exactly as stock, the airbox is unmolested, and will not flag on a visual. I never had to hide anything for smog.

 

I did the deck plate mod. And still passed smog in CA. I just take it to a shop run by some cool Mexicans! They just looked at it and were pointing at it too. I leave the deck plate out until it's time to smog them I put it back on. That's the beauty of it. You don't have to change the whole set up. Just the deck plate.

 

Eh I guess I'm just too paranoid. Haha.

It's harder to install the deck plate on the 4 bangers since the air box has some bevelling on the outside. I love the look of the CAI too.